Tuesday, October 26, 2010

There is honour in dirt

There is honour in dirt, there is goodness in doing the dirty jobs.  Luke loves watching Dirty Jobs, he respects and admires workers in trades and in jobs like farmers.  Someone asked me what our hopes for him were - and my reply was, anything that makes him happy!  But being a bit 'old school' they had concerns that he would do a manual job or perhaps something that was hard or would be dirty.  I couldn't help but laugh!






Dirty as a problem?   Not likely, and as I got to thinking about it I really considered there is honour in dirt.  There is something about someone who is not afraid of dirt that makes me proud.  Mike Rowe, of Dirty Jobs, has some really great ideas on subjects like this, and he inspires us with his show.  For us it isn't always about the dirt in the job, but the people and their ingenuity.  Their spirit  and determination to make things happen, to get things done.

I've done some dirty jobs and I've done clean and tidy jobs.  Except for a few wish-I-could-forget moments I'd take the dirty ones any day!  Well almost any day! 

When I think about the future I think we'll have more of a need for people who can and will do the dirty jobs.  People who can literally muck their way through and be okay with it.  Growing food, fighting fires, tending animals, building structures, repairing and retrofitting.  When we have dirt on our hands we know we did something.  Maybe not earth shattering or Nobel Prize winning but something we can put our hands around, take a photo of, stand back from and say, "yep got that done." Even if it is only done for that moment or that day.

My family has a long history of dirt and I'm proud of it. Farmers, ranchers, builders, labourers, ship's captains and scoundrels.  Men, women and children who pioneered, invented and created with dirt on their hands.  So keep on getting dirty Mike, Andrew and the gang from Mythbusters. Keep on getting dirty farmers, fire fighters, Moms and Dads,  hydro men and women, miners and fishermen, vets and rescuers.  Keep on getting dirty, there is honour in that dirt!  (please wash your hands before eating!)

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Back in the Scrap

Oh yeah I've been getting back in the scrap and does it feel good? Oh Yeah! Went to a crop last Saturday, met some rockin' scrappers and am going next Friday.   Thanks Janelle for doing a great crop and Sharon I'm looking forward to yours, I'm bringing a friend and we are going to have a super time.  Last Saturday I did five layouts and made two chipboard albums.

I'll be posting some photos tomorrow...tonight I'm thinking about what my next layout project should be - and sadly  I know what it must be!  I have to finish pages that are languishing in albums, waiting for a final element, bit of journalling or even a photo.  No more new pages until those are done!


A few weeks ago Earl and I were working on a page of us enjoying a winter bonfire and we thought it needed marshmallow embellishments.  We used stickers of sticks and made our own dimensional marshmallow elements.  I've put the tutorial here for you - this would work to make snow men, snow balls, marshmallows or anything else!


Keep on scrapping!


How To Make Dimensional Marshmallow Elements

This is the method Earl came up with while helping me with a page.

Here is how we got this great dimensional marshmallow element for our paper page, you can do it too!

Supplies:
Stamping Up (or other) Chalk set
Square punch
Thick white paper
Corner rounder
'stick' stickers or dimensional sticks
Popsicle stick or embossing tool
Round edged container (I used a wooden candle lid)
Large foam 'pop dot'

1:  Punch your squares, be sure they are to scale with what you are using for sticks on the layout
     Round the corners with your corner rounder

2:  Using dark brown chalk, chalk the top and side edges of your marshmallows
     smudge the brown about a 1/3 of the way in to the shape, getting lighter towards the bottom

3:  Using black chalk, chalk the edges on top and sides
     Randomly smudge some black (like scorch marks) on the top 3/4 of the marshmallow

4:  Place the edge of the marshmallow over your rounded object
     Using the popsicle stick or embossing tool, curve the edges downwards, all the way around

5:  Re-chalk any areas which need more brown or black (to look toasted)

6  Position your pop dot on the page, over your stick
    Adhere marshmallow without bending the edges flat again

TA! DA! You have a dimensional paper marshmallow for camping, bbq and fireside pages...